Development means more than championships in minor league baseball, so every year promotions, demotions and trades define the season’s emotional moments. A bad year for one man might be a great one for his teammate.

So it has been for the 2015 Jackson Generals, though the good parts have been admittedly hard to find.

The Generals won their home finale 8-7 Tuesday night before heading to Chattanooga to close the season, and they are 50-82. It’s the worst record for the franchise since it moved from Memphis to Jackson in 1998.

But Tyler Smith has gotten better at shortstop, and Paul Fry is excelling as a relief pitcher. Those two were among four Generals invited Tuesday to the Arizona Fall League, where they’ll get to develop further and hopefully work toward reaching Triple-A and beyond starting next season.

“The prospects go there every year, and it’s just going to be a lot of good competition,” Smith, 24, said.

Fry, 23, will face similarly good hitters.

“It’s a great opportunity for me,” Fry said. “I didn’t think I would be in the Arizona Fall League at the beginning of the year, but I’m real excited.”

Fry only recently was called up to Jackson, but Smith has spent the entire year with the Generals. The road trips and low pay are tough enough, but the team’s lack of success hurts too.

“It’s been a challenge for sure,” Smith said. “Guys are getting hurt. Guys are getting sent all over the place. Only a couple of guys have been here the whole year. We haven’t had much of a consistent team.”

“ ... Of course the losses, day in and day out it’s hard. It’s been a challenge, but I just try to tell myself ‘Don’t give away one at-bat.’ As hard as that can be late in games when it might be a long game and we’re down a bunch of runs, you never want to give away that at-bat when you go to the plate.”

That Fry is a professional pitcher is a little unlikely, given he was a position player through his junior year of high school. (He also played quarterback for the football team.)

Mike Malley, the coach at Waterford (Mich.) Kettering High, saw Fry was hitting poorly but had a strong arm, and had him pitch.

Fry had a 2.13 ERA this year in Class-A Bakersfield and a 2.11 ERA in 21 appearances with the Generals. Good call, coach.

“Last year he came out to a game, and he’s really proud of me,” Fry said of Malley.

A native of Thousand Oaks, California, Smith has played 116 games this year for Jackson, hitting .268 with 61 walks, 23 doubles, two triples and three homers.

He’s emphasized making routine plays at shortstop, but he recognizes there are a few shortstops ahead of him in the organization and he must continue improving.

“If you can make the great play, that’s just a bonus,” he said. “But I think if you make that play right at you [or] a couple steps to your left or right every time, and do it consistently, that’s what they want from a shortstop.”

Offensively, Smith tries to drive the ball up the middle. His future is not in pulling the ball with power but getting on base. He named Reds prospects Robert Stephenson and Cody Reed and Twins prospect Jose Berrios among the toughest Southern League pitchers he’s faced.

“If I have to come back here, I’ll just continue to go forward,” Smith said. “But I think the goal would be to have a good Fall League, maybe end up in big league camp and be in Triple-A next year. That would be the goal, but I can’t control that. All I can control is my performance and the opportunity I’ve been given for the Fall League.”

Fry’s fastball stays in the lows 90s, but he likes how he can challenge lefthanded hitters with a slider and is working on his changeup. He must progress further to be a big-league pitcher.

“Yeah you get chills sometimes thinking about it.” Fry said. “But it’s still a dream.”